$C^\ast$-categorical prefactorization algebras for superselection sectors and topological order

Abstract: This paper presents a conceptual and efficient geometric framework to encode the algebraic structures on the category of superselection sectors of an algebraic quantum field theory on the $n$-dimensional lattice $\mathbb{Z}^n$. It is shown that, under certain assumptions which are implied by Haag duality, the monoidal $C^\ast$-categories of localized superselection sectors carry the structure of a locally constant prefactorization algebra over the category of cone-shaped subsets of $\mathbb{Z}^n$. Employing techniques from higher algebra, one extracts from this datum an underlying locally constant prefactorization algebra defined on open disks in the cylinder $\mathbb{R}^1\times\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$. While the sphere $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ arises geometrically as the angular coordinates of cones, the origin of the line $\mathbb{R}^1$ is analytic and rooted in Haag duality. The usual braided (for $n=2$) or symmetric (for $n\geq 3$) monoidal $C^\ast$-categories of superselection sectors are recovered by removing a point of the sphere $\mathbb{R}^1\times(\mathbb{S}^{n-1}\setminus\mathrm{pt}) \cong\mathbb{R}^n$ and using the equivalence between $\mathbb{E}_n$-algebras and locally constant prefactorization algebras defined on open disks in $\mathbb{R}^n$. The non-trivial homotopy groups of spheres induce additional algebraic structures on these $\mathbb{E}_n$-monoidal $C^\ast$-categories, which in the case of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is given by a braided monoidal self-equivalence arising geometrically as a kind of `holonomy' around the circle $\mathbb{S}^1$. The locally constant prefactorization algebra structures discovered in this work generalize, under some mild geometric conditions, to other discrete spaces and thereby provide a clear link between the geometry of the localization regions and the algebraic structures on the category of superselection sectors.